Question
Can CP affect ABR results in young children and give false positive results?
Answer
I am going to defer to the "real" expert, Dr. James W. Hall III, who wrote the following:
Because CP is a motor disease, normal findings would be expected for sensory responses such as AERs. Nonetheless, AERs may be requested for children with CP because of the high incidence of speech problems in the population. AERs can be useful in ruling out peripheral hearing deficit. However, movement and related muscle artifact may make AER assessment in CP somewhat difficult.
These statements agree with what we have experienced in our practice of diagnostic ABRs at St. Louis Children's Hospital over the past 19 years.
Hall, James W. (1992) Chapter 13, Neurodiagnosis: Central Nervous System
Handbook of Auditory Evoked Responses (p451) Allyn and Bacon, Needham Heights, Massachusetts.
BIO:
Roanne K. Karzon, Ph.D. CCC-A has been an audiologist for 27 years. She is the Manager of Audiology at St. Louis Children's Hospital and resides in St. Louis, Missouri. She can be reached at [email protected].